Grammy Award-winning blues guitarist/singer Joe Louis Walker was blaring out the beach-swing soul music of “Sugar Coated Mama” on the lawn at PPL Plaza along Hamilton Street in Allentown, as more than 30 people danced in front of the makeshift stage and maybe 2,000 more looked on.

It was a celebration. And the vibe was so good, that even as the song wound on for nine minutes, you just wished for more.

That was the culmination of downtown Allentown’s eighth annual Blues, Brews and Barbecue festival: a day of great music, great weather and large, enthusiastic crowds.

It turns out Walker, the first national act the festival has had as it doubled in size from one block to two this year in a downtown revitalized by the opening of the nearby PPL Center arena and $1 billion in other development, was a great choice.

Joe Louis Walker at Allentown's Blues Brews and Barbecue

JOHN J. MOSER/The Morning Call

Joe Louis Walker at Allentown's Blues Brews and Barbecue

Joe Louis Walker at Allentown's Blues Brews and Barbecue

(JOHN J. MOSER/The Morning Call)

His swinging, rocking blues fit perfect for a crowd that, on a day when temperatures were in the low 80s and sunny, people were ready to swing.

Walker played largely rock- and R&B-influenced blues in a 13-song, 90-minute set that often reared off on long instrumental runs that encouraged dancing.

He also played more traditional blues, opening the show with “I’m Not Messin’ Around”and “T-Bone Shuffle,” a track from a B.B. King Grammy Award-winning disc on which Walker played (he dedicated the song to the recently-passed King).

Edward David Anderson at Allentown's Blues Brews and Barbecue

JOHN J. MOSER/The Morning Call

Edward David Anderson at Allentown's Blues Brews and Barbecue

Edward David Anderson at Allentown's Blues Brews and Barbecue

(JOHN J. MOSER/The Morning Call)

But Walker signaled early in the set that much of his blues have equal parts rock, R&B and soul.

He gave plenty of room to his three-man backing band, with a long sax journey on the more sinewy “If You Don’t Love Me” and a keyboards exercise on the more traditional gut-bucket blues of “Ain’t That Cold.”

And he gave himself a centerpiece in “Sugar Mama,” making his guitar cry and sing a nine-minute workout on which he also played harmonica. “I play the blues the way I like it,” he said. “I like it slow and hard.”

“Hornet’s Nest,” the title track from his most recent CD, show the blues-rock side.

But his best – and most fitting for the festival – were his more R&B and soul songs.

The early “Don’t Let Go” was swinging and hopping R&B. The very good “In the Morning” was straight-up Motown soul. And the show’s penultimate song, “One Time Around,” also very good, was R&B swing with drum-heavy interludes.

“It’s been a great, great day,” Miriam Huertas, senior vice president for Allentown initiatives for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, said from the stage. The chamber coordinates the festival through its Hamilton District Main Street program. “The weather held up and you came out.”

Walker’s set was, indeed, indicative of how successful the festival was. Even though it was expanded, the two-block setup was filled with food stands and activities – and people, as well.

And its three stages all offered good music. Earlier, Edward David Anderson, who formerly played with cult-favorite Midwestern rock band Backyard Tire Fire, had about 150 people watching him at the festival’s eastern edge, The Hamilton Kitchen restaurant. Most also were eating.

Anderson played electrified acoustic guitar and his own kick-drum percussion on a folk-rock-blues set that included originals and even Delta blues songs of Robert Johnson, on which he played a cigar-box guitar.

Clarence Spady played far more blue-rock, updating the soft-edge blues of Robert Johnson’s “Love in Vain,” blaring a long version of Santana’s "Oye Como Va" and playing his own “Down to the River,” which he demonstrated started with him unconsciously playing Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird.”